In the modern era of the gaming industry, originality is slowly being a breakthrough factor in the success of the game. This is the main reason why developers are exponentially increasing their “outside the box” thinking, and come up with a new concept or mechanic which may give their game an edge over other similar titles or genres. Unfortunately, it does not only take a good idea to create a classic; implementation into a game along with the other components of the title is probably more important than the idea itself, since if your game does not fit together nicely, it will end up like a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece. This is the case with Bohemian Killing, a new game from developers The Moonwalls which has a lot going for it in theory, but its implementation is definitely not even sufficient to recommend.
Bohemian Killing is described as a point and click game, situated in old France. In the game you “control”, Alfred Ethon, who right at the start of the game kills a woman, and you end up in court, right in the middle of a trial which could see you end up in jail if your defence, aided by yourself, cannot manipulate the truth in your own favour. The game’s presentation is one of its few good points, since the murder from the get-go will start having players asking questions and become hungrier to discover more from the game’s tale. Unfortunately, this hunger is just the same as craving something you have not eaten in a long while and resulting in a taste which is not quite as expected, or worse yet end up with food poisoning. This is because under its peculiar graphic scheme and heavy beige colouring, the game rarely holds anything decent, but is instead full of repetition and boredom.
First things first; in Bohemian Killing, as mentioned above, players must do whatever is in their power to have Ethon get out of court with the least penalty possible, if any at all. In order to do this you must interact with anything out in the world to find clues and hints which will make your escape more a realistic aim. While this latter mechanic has been used in games before, and quite well too, Bohemian Killing is a bit weird in its implementation of the mechanic, since quite often you will find whatever you need by random or as a result of spamming while moving, other than using the grey matter in your brain to arrive to a logical solution. The spamming will also become part of the game once it tires you out; it contains quite a large chunk of boring dialogue between characters, and oftentimes it was even as good as a bed time story if you wanted to go to sleep while these characters talked. The game definitely needed better voice acting and stronger lines to make a success, since the ones which it currently has are doing more harm than good in the end.
A further problem with Bohemian Killing is the fact that one playthrough is generally not enough to get the game over with, almost requiring a second one just to be happy you did it. Replaying the game and changing some things here and there will have an effect on the final sentence outed by the judges, and thus one must be extra careful when choosing what to do, if there is a choice anyway. Finding items is more a question of luck rather than brains, so happy spamming I guess.
It is quite a shame that a great idea such as that of Bohemian Killing ends up with a relatively flat outcome. The hype for the game was definitely not through the roof, but it was something which gamers were looking forward to, since it triggered the imagination of many as to how the game would be. It seems though as if the game has taken the worst form it could have taken, with the good points just an outline among a whole game of disappointment. The idea is definitely a good one, and maybe in the future, the developers can go over the game again, right the many wrongs it contains, and maybe also give it a more graphically pleasing aesthetic to make the whole experience enjoyable for all. Until then, we can only leave the game in handcuffs so as not to do more damage to itself than it already has.
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